Partnership With LAPD
Approximately 30 LAPD officers were assigned to LAX as a regular assignment from 1961 to the late 1990s. The number has increased since then but is believed to be less than 75. Their original purpose was to handle crime reports and police response. Over time, with increased passenger counts and increases in Airport Police staffing, Airport Police took on more of the police functions.
Although the relationship between both agencies has been stormy (typically in response to merger attempts), individual relations between line officers and up to the local command level have usually been cordial and effective. This has especially been the case during periods of crisis and emergency, with collaborative management, command and control using the Incident Command System.
In 2002, in response to a terrorist shooting incident at LAX, Mayor James Hahn directed that additional LAPD officers be assigned to the airport. These officers are assigned to passenger screening stations so as to free up Airport Police officers for other duties. The LAPD officers are trained by Airport Police for these duties and are expected to call Airport Police to resolve matters as they arise. LAPD officers assigned to this function are on overtime, with Los Angeles World Airports reimbursing LAPD and the Transportation Security Administration providing significant reimbursement in turn to the airport.
A number of LAPD officers are assigned to explosive detection duties in partnership with Airport Police officers in a joint unit. LAPD also provides additional specialized assistance on request.
Several Airport Police officers are assigned as Detectives, working out of LAPD detective units on airport related crimes.
Read more about this topic: Los Angeles Airport Police
Famous quotes containing the word partnership:
“Society is indeed a contract.... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)